NYU Law Forum—The State of the Death Penalty: Fifty Years After Furman

NYU Law Forum
The State of the Death Penalty: Fifty Years After Furman

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In 1972, the US Supreme Court held in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty, if applied arbitrarily or discriminatorily, violates the Eighth Amendment. However, the Furman court stopped short of finding the death penalty inherently unconstitutional. Instead, it gave states the opportunity to modify their capital schemes to comport with the constitution, and four years later, in Gregg v. Georgia, it upheld most of these laws and reinstated the death penalty. Since peaking in 1999, executions have fallen precipitously, as has public support for the death penalty. Today, fifty years after Furman, more than half of US states have either abolished the death penalty or have governor-imposed moratoria. This raises the question: Is the death penalty, as administered today, any less arbitrary and discriminatory than it was when Furman was decided? At this Forum, experts with backgrounds in capital defense will unpack this question, analyzing the US Department of Justice’s shifting position on capital punishment over the last four years, the challenging landscape created by recent Supreme Court death penalty and habeas corpus jurisprudence, and other contemporary issues in death penalty litigation and policy.

This event is co-hosted by the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law.

Speakers

• Vincent Southerland, Assistant Professor of Clinical Law and Co-Faculty Director, Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law, NYU School of Law (moderator)
• Alexis Hoag-Fordjour ’08, Assistant Professor of Law and Co-Director, Center for Criminal Justice, Brooklyn Law School
• Aren Adjoian, Supervisory Assistant Federal Defender, Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Community Defender Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania; Adjunct Professor of Law, Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law